


Overheard During Negotiations

by KlavierWrites



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gameplay dynamics as plot device, M/M, Misunderstandings, November spoilers, Pining, Shadow Negotiation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-31 00:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12120843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KlavierWrites/pseuds/KlavierWrites
Summary: "I'm in love with someone else."Yusuke can't get those words, spoken by Akira during a shadow negotiation, out of his head.





	Overheard During Negotiations

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers up to (and including) the interrogation. 
> 
> Edited as of 04/10/17 to fix a few fluency issues/tense confusions.

They’ve been in Sae Niijima’s palace for hours, and Yusuke’s stamina is beginning to wane. He’d been hit early on by a well-placed agilao, the burn still itching even after Morgana’s healing spell. It doesn’t help that the staff corridors behind the dice game have little aesthetic merit, meaning Yusuke is bored as well as tired.

They come across yet another shadow weak to blessed attacks, and Akechi makes quick work of it, downing it in a single move. They all rush forward with their guns drawn, surrounding it, and Akira begins to talk. Usually, Yusuke is fascinated by the way Akira can reason with the creatures they encounter, but his exhaustion is threatening to catch up with him. So instead, he takes the opportunity to catch his breath, and ends up missing what the shadow says, only hearing Akira’s reply.

“I’m in love with someone else.”

The battle’s over after that, and Akira claims his new persona with a pleased smirk. Morgana congratulates him and Makoto slaps him on the shoulder, and then they’re off and moving again, and Yusuke is left dumbfounded.

His understanding of Akira’s wild card ability is sketchy at best. Of all of them, only Morgana seems to have a solid grasp on how it works. But Yusuke’s seen enough negotiations now to know that as a rule, Akira doesn’t like to lie the shadows he holds at gunpoint. If the negotiation goes right, they’d know he was lying the moment he donned their mask, after all.  

Which means Akira just admitted he was in love with someone, and Yusuke is the only person who seems concerned.

His concentration is so shot after that bombshell that he misses an easy-to-dodge physical attack and Akira switches him out mid-battle, his expression apologetic. Haru jumps in to take his place and Yusuke retreats to the back-up party. He can’t bring himself to mind too much, grateful for the opportunity to properly consider this new information.

If Akira is in love, it must be with a member of the Phantom Thieves. Akira strikes deals with everyone, from his homeroom teacher to Hifumi Togo, but his relationships seem to be tit-for-tat: he’ll help you with your problems, and exchange you’ll offer him something that helps him infiltrate palaces. Sometimes it’s subtle, like the way Akira’s battle strategy has become better since he’s been playing shogi, but there’s always an ulterior motive. Most of his confidants don’t know that Akira is the leader of the Phantom Thieves. They don’t know the version of Akira that exists in the Metaverse, the trickster and strategist and sometimes ruthless fighter.

Yusuke knows he could never date someone who wasn’t in on the Phantom Thieves secret, and he’s heard Makoto say the same. It would just be uncomfortable, trying to hide that part of his life, his identity. And it seems unlikely that Akira, who lives and breathes for the Phantom Thieves, could love someone who didn’t also love Joker.  

He watches Akira and Makoto execute a flawless baton pass, downing three shadows in one go and then calling for an all-out attack. Their movements are practiced and easy, rarely even needing words. The two have been spending a lot of time together recently, Yusuke knows. Futaba had even mentioned something about them pretending to date, but had only cackled when Yusuke pressed her for more details. As he watches the two of them fight together, it occurs to him that simulated romance is the perfect environment for real love to bloom.

By the time they’ve finished hacking the huge slot machine, Yusuke is sure it’s Makoto that Akira is in love with, and half-convinced they’re dating already. Everyone knows that she’s Akira’s preferred healer to have on hand, and if Yusuke was interested in women, he has no doubt that he too would have been taken in by the attractive dichotomy between her aggressive persona-wielding self and the Makoto who existed outside of the Metaverse. It was the initial basis of his fascination with Akira, after all. It’s not a stretch, either, to imagine that with all the stress of entering her sister’s palace, Makoto has found comfort in their leader’s arms.

They reach the next level of the palace and have to turn back, a security guard blocking them from proceeding any further. It’s an annoyance, for sure, but Yusuke is more than thankful for a solid reason to quit infiltration for the day. Despite his time on the support team, he still feels so wiped out he knows he’ll collapse as soon as he returns to the dorms.

“Hey,” says Haru, as they make their way back out of the casino, “you’ve not said anything for a while. Are you ok?”

He likes Haru. She notices things. “I’m quite alright,” he says, “just tired.”

“If you’re sure,” she says, biting her lip. “I’d hate for there to be bad feelings between us.”

It takes him a moment to realise she’s talking about how she’d taken his place on the front line. He chuckles. “I’m thankful you were there to take over when my attention was elsewhere,” he assures her, and she smiles softly.

“It was? That’s understandable,” she says. Nobody speaks another word until they’re outside the palace. Akira murmurs something about a fusion, and a moment later he’s staring blank-eyed into the distance like he does when he’s organising his personas.

“Does he do that a lot?” asks Akechi, looking at their glassy-eyed leader.

“Eh, you get used to it,” says Ryuji, shrugging. “I think it’s a wild card thing.”

“Wild card?” repeats Akechi, fascinated, but nobody offered any further details.

“Yo, Inari,” says Futaba, “you’re looking pretty out of it, yourself.”

“Oh,” he says, “my apologies.”                                   

“What’s got you so distracted?” her smile is wicked, and Yusuke doesn’t trust it.

“It’s nothing,” he says.

“Sure,” she says, “so it’s nothing to do with what Joker said during that holdup?” The rest of the team is looking at him expectantly, and he wonders if there’s something he’s missed. Do they want to gossip about Akira’s relationship with Makoto, when they’re both right there, and Makoto, at least, is fully lucid?

He folds his arms uncomfortably. Ryuji snorts. “Futaba, lay off the guy.”

“Am I missing something?” asks Akechi.

All eyes turn to him instead. Makoto smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “No,” she says sweetly, “nothing at all.”

Akira claps his hands, startling them all. The dreamy quality is gone from his expression, and Yusuke knows he’s back from wherever it is he goes. “Sorry,” he says, “I had something to take care of. Ready to get out of here?”

Everyone nods and Akira gets out his phone, and a moment later they’re on the courthouse steps.

 

-

 

After a trip to watch a trial, they make quick work of the rest of Sae’s palace. The dark maze is unpleasant, and watching Akira fight in the battle arena is terrifying, but there are no more confusing conversations with shadows to distract Yusuke from the task at hand, and they manage to collect enough tokens to cross the bridge to Sae’s treasure without too much trouble.

Their route secure, they return to the hideout, and that’s when Akechi drops his wait-until-the-last-possible-day plan. Yusuke doesn’t like it, and he can tell the others are wary too, but they can’t let the detective know about their suspicions, so going along with him is the easier option.

Unfortunately, with so much extra time before they’ve got to send the calling card, Yusuke has nothing to draw his thoughts away from Akira.

He can’t work out if Akira and Makoto are dating. They’re definitely close friends, but that goes for any two members of the Phantom Thieves. Akira doesn’t treat Makoto differently on the group chat, and any time he’s more courteous to her than he is to, say, Ann, it could easily be written off as respect for his senpai. In short, Yusuke is stumped.

He begins to think that maybe his initial interpretation was wrong, and starts to scrutinise Akira’s interactions with all the Phantom Thieves, not just Makoto. Akira is raucous with Ryuji; quiet and friendly with Haru; boundlessly supportive with Ann, and teasingly affectionate with Futaba. He’s studious with Makoto and pleasant and respectful around Akechi. Yusuke can’t pin down who he gives special treatment, because he gives _everyone_ special treatment. 

He tracks down Yusuke in the underground mall a few days later and just sits with him, people-watching, even though Yusuke knows few people find the sport as entertaining as he does. And he’s happy to listen to Yusuke make deductions about the people who walk past, laughing at Yusuke’s jokes even when he knows they’re not funny. He wonders if Akira is ever truly himself with anyone, and decides that he probably only lets his guard down when he’s with the person he loves. As if Yusuke would be so lucky.

“That girl over there,” says Akira, pointing discreetly at the teenager in question, “I think she’s on her way to see her best friend.”

“Really?” asks Yusuke, playing along. While his own observations when people-watching are based on visual cues, Akira tends to invent narratives.

“Yeah,” he says, “she’s been nervous about it all week.”

“Why?”  

Akira shrugs. “She’s been in love with her for months, and dropped a super obvious hint about it. She’s hoping this’ll be the day her friend confesses.”

“Will she?” asks Yusuke, watching the girl in question go through the gates and disappear into the crowd.

Akira gives him a look that he doesn’t understand.  “I’m still figuring that one out.”

His companion leaves when evening falls, and Yusuke receives a text from Ryuji on his way back to his dorms. This is unusual – Ryuji rarely sends him messages personally, preferring to hash everything out on the Phantom Thieves group chat.

 

_> dude you have to know by now_

_> when r you gunna make your move_

 

He stares at the messages, puzzled, before deciding they must have been meant for someone else and slipping his phone back into his pocket.

 

-

 

There’s time before the deadline to make another trip into Mementos, and Yusuke ends up on the front line again. They have two requests and haven’t quite finished exploring the newest section, but Akira insists they’re there mostly there to train. He points out that their mission to steal Sae’s treasure could very well end in another battle, something Yusuke is beginning to take as a given.

 He’s on edge the entire time, terrified that Akira will drop another bombshell during a negotiation. It’s not long until his fears are realised, Akira looking down the barrel of a gun and saying to a shadow, calm as anything, “I like men.”

Akira glances at Akechi after he says it, and Yusuke’s pretty sure his world shatters.

Yusuke had been prepared for Akira to be in love with any of the girls from the Phantom Thieves. He’d even considered, momentarily, how he’d feel if Akira started dating Ryuji. But he hadn’t for a moment thought that the leader of the Phantom Thieves might be in love with the detective trying to take them down.

Yusuke can’t puzzle the look on Akechi’s face. The ever-pleasant boy is smirking under his ridiculous crow mask, like he’s figured something out, and Yusuke is surprised by the significant stab of _dislike_ he feels. He’s used to feeling distrust around the Detective Prince, but dislike is a far pettier emotion. If he’s being honest, it’s flat-out jealousy that causes it.

They climb back into Morgana (a statement that will never not be strange) and are on their way. Akira drives like a madman, but at least the long periods in the car mean that Yusuke never gets bone-tired in Mementos the way he does in palaces.

Yusuke’s accuracy and evasion suffer greatly from his inability to stop scrutinising every little interaction between Akechi and their leader. He tries to figure out if their hands linger after baton passes, or if Akira is faster to jump to Akechi’s aid than he is Yusuke’s. He misses an easy hit because he’s so distracted, and offers to sit the next one out.

“Swap me with Panther,” he says, a little desperately, when the fight’s over. “Nothing’s been weak to ice anyway, I’d be more useful in support.”

“What’s gotten into you?” says Akira, and Yusuke can see genuine concern behind his mask.  

Yusuke opens his mouth to answer and Morgana cuts across them, pointing out that they’ve been on this floor too long already. They get back inside the bus, and when they next bump into shadows, Panther goes out in his stead.

The next set of escalators they come across lead to a rest stop, and Akira pulls him aside immediately.

“If you’re mad at me,” he says, “you can just tell me.”

Yusuke’s mouth is dry. Akira had grabbed his arm to get his attention, and he still hasn’t let go. “Why would I be mad?” he says. His voice sounds strange.

Akira fiddles with his hair, a nervous tick that he usually doesn’t indulge in when he’s being Joker. “Because of what I said to that shadow.”

Yusuke cocks his head. “About your liking men? I’m sure you know better of me than to think I’d be angry about something like that.” The words are dripping with fake affront. He knows that’s not what Akira means.

Akira sighs. “I mean the other shadow, last week, in Niijima’s palace. When I said I was in love with– someone. I’ve been waiting for you to call me out on it, you’ve been acting weird ever since.”

So he’d noticed. Yusuke was glad they were far enough away from the rest of the group as not to be heard. “I, uh,” he swallows, trying again, “I can’t say I wasn’t surprised.”

“Really? I thought I was being obvious.”

Oh God, Akira really is in love with Akechi. That’s why he let him join the team despite how suspicious his story was. That’s why he’s refused to call him out outright, because he’s hopeful that the man he’s in love with can be redeemed. Yusuke feels sick.

He closes his eyes for a moment to let his stomach settle. When he opens them, Akira’s looking nervous. “If you’re in love with Crow-” Yusuke starts, but Akira cuts across him.

“In love with _Crow_?” he says, taking a step back in surprise and releasing his hold on Yusuke’s arm. “ _What?_ ”

Oh. “You aren’t?”

“No!” says Akira vehemently. “What the _fuck,_ Yusuke _._ Why would you even think that?”

Yusuke could feel heat flooding his face, and realises he may have read the situation wrong after all. “You looked at him,” he says, “after you told that shadow you liked men.”

“Yeah,” says Akira, his voice hushed but furious, “to see if I was giving away too much. To see if he’s worked out yet that I’m in love with _you_.”

Yusuke has officially had too many heart-stopping moments today, because he’s pretty sure it literally forgets to beat for a second before thumping into overdrive.

“Me?” he asks, dazed.

“You seriously didn’t know?” says Akira, eyebrows raised.

“No,” he says, “I’ve spent the past week madly jealous, trying to work out who it is that you’re in love with.”

“Oh, jeez. I thought you were figuring out how to let me down easy or something. I was super pissed you didn’t say anything about it the other day, you know.” Akira runs a hand through his hair, and smiles sheepishly. “My bad, I guess?”

Little things are knitting together in his mind. Ryuji’s texts. The way the group had looked at him at the entrance to the palace after Akira had confessed – they had all thought he was in the loop, that he’d been distracted the whole infiltration trip because he’d just realised his feeling for Akira were requited.

People really needed to stop assuming that Yusuke understood significant looks. “Please, in future, use your words,” he says.

Akira honest-to-God laughs, stepping up into Yusuke’s space. “I think the cat’s out of the bag with the Akechi thing,” he murmurs. “I didn’t want him to know how I felt about you in case he tried to use it against us, but this is a dead giveaway.”

Yusuke’s a little overwhelmed by how close Akira is, actually. “Uh,” he says, eloquently.

“We could make it more obvious?” says Akira, somehow getting even closer. “If you’d like?”

Yusuke realises what Akira is about to do milliseconds before he does it, having only enough time to tilt his head before Akira’s pushing Yusuke’s mask out of the way and slotting their mouths together.

Yusuke grasps at Akira’s waist and Akira murmurs something unintelligible into the kiss, his eyes fluttering closed, his hands snaking around the back of Yusuke’s head to pull him closer.

It’s intoxicating, and Yusuke doesn’t want it to end, but a sharp wolf-whistle pulls him back to his senses. He opens his eyes.

“Get it, Joker!” comes Ann’s voice, atop a wave of giggles.

“About time, Inari!” yells Futaba.

Yusuke is too happy to care that they’re making a spectacle of themselves. He tugs on Akira’s coat to reclaim his lips with his own.

**Author's Note:**

> Both of those are real dialogue options during shadow negotiations, y'know.
> 
> This took forever to edit since I somehow changed tenses half way through? I went with present tense because that's what most of it was, and I think it fitted the flow of the story a little better.
> 
> Also, I finally wrote a p5 fic where Yusuke and Akira actually kiss? Third time's the charm, I guess.


End file.
